Iran directed anti-Semitic attacks in Melbourne and Sydney, AFP confirms, as PM expels ambassador
While law enforcement agencies are being guarded about other attacks under investigation, a former bikie boss is alleged to have been a key player in multiple confirmed incidents.
A Melbourne synagogue and a kosher cafe in Sydney’s east were the targets of two anti-Semitic attacks on Australia’s Jewish community directed by Iran.
As Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Tuesday revealed Iran had directed “unprecedented” attacks on Australia, and expelled Iranian ambassador Ahmad Sadeghi from Australia, the Australian Federal Police remained adamant that while attacks on the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne and Lewis’ Continental Kitchen in Sydney had been orchestrated by Iran, a caravan bomb plot in which an explosives-laden van was found in Dural on the outskirts of Sydney, was not.
Jewish leaders, disturbed by the revelations, have welcomed Mr Albanese’s decision, while the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies President David Ossip said those who had downplayed or dismissed concerns about a wave of anti-Semitic attacks owed the Jewish community an apology.
In announcing Mr Sadeghi’s expulsion, the PM warned Iran and other nations seeking to interfere in Australia that their actions would not be tolerated.
Caravan terror anti-Semitism
Law enforcement agencies are resolute Iran is not linked to the Sydney caravan bomb plot, while being guarded about other attacks that are under investigation.
The AFP stood by its public declaration in March that an explosives-laden caravan found with a note containing a list of Jewish sites and the words “f. k the Jews” was a fake terrorism plot tied to organised crime.
In the wake of Mr Albanese’s stunning revealtins on Tuesday, the AFP confirmed there was no change to its position on the caravan found at Dural in January, reaffirming previous comments made by deputy commissioner Krissy Barrett.
Ms Barrett, who will be promoted to commissioner of the AFP in October, said in March that the caravan plot was “concocted by criminals who wanted to cause fear for personal benefit”.
Iran has been identified as being behind the firebombing of Melbourne’s Adass Israel Synagogue in December and Sydney’s Lewis Continental Kitchen attack in October, Anthony Albanese and ASIO announced Tuesday.
Other attacks on Australian soil are also suspected to have been orchestrated by Iran.
An AFP spokeswoman declined to comment on what other attacks were being investigated over suspected connections to Iran.
ASIO director-general Mike Burgess said the spy agency was investigating suspected Iranian involvement in “a number of other attacks”.
He stressed the agency did not believe the regime was responsible for every act of anti-Semitism in Australia.
ASIO believes Iran was responsible for plotting arson attacks against Lewis’ Continental Kitchen and the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne, Mr Albanese revealed.
Adass Israel Synagogue attack
Before his stunning revelations, authorities had charged two men over their alleged role in the December firebombing of the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne.
The December 6 attack on the synagogue, in Ripponlea in Melbourne’s southeast, caused millions of dollars of damage and destroyed priceless religious artefacts, including centuries-old Torah scrolls.
“This arson attack is an act of terrorism that was fuelled by anti-Semitism, stoked by hatred,” Mr Albanese said after inspecting the destroyed interior of the synagogue in the days following the fire.
CCTV footage released this year showed masked men smashing their way into the $20m synagogue, with one carrying a red jerry can, before flames engulfed the building.
Police alleged a group of three men arrived at the scene in a stolen blue Volkswagen Golf, previously described as a “communal crime car” allegedly used in a string of unrelated incidents – including a firebombing at South Yarra’s Lux Nightclub.
Updates on the investigation were relatively sparse until last month, when the Victorian Joint Counter Terrorism Team – a taskforce comprising Victoria Police, Australian Federal Police and ASIO members – arrested and charged 21-year-old Giovanni Laulu with arson, recklessly endangering life and vehicle theft.
At the time, the JCTT confirmed it still believed the Adass Israel Synagogue firebombing was politically motivated and its terrorism investigation remained ongoing.
Last week, police arrested and charged a second man in relation to the attack, a 20-year-old from Meadow Heights in Melbourne’s north.
He was charged with arson, recklessly endangering life and vehicle theft.
Following the attack, the government pledged more than $31m to rebuild the synagogue and upgrade its security.
Bondi kosher cafe attack
Sydney kosher cafe Lewis’ Continental Kitchen was the target of an attack on October 20 last year.
It’s now known that attack was also directed by the Iranian government.
Lewis’ Continental Kitchen was set on fire just after 4am, three days after the front door of another Sydney venue, the Curly Lewis Brewing Company, was torched in what was believed to be a case of mistaken identity.
On October 17, the Curly Lewis brewery was torched, sustaining about $80,000 in damages.
A few days later, on October 20, the Jewish-run kosher deli – just one kilometre away – was hit.
Messages between the alleged arsonists highlighted the confusion, with one texting after the first firebombing “I’m starting to think he has sent us to the wrong place lol”.
Both venues were badly damaged, and police at the time declared there was “nothing to suggest” the incidents were targeted and there should be “no community concern”.
Asked if NSW police had made a mistake in saying this at the time, ASIO director-general Mike Burgess said “police had to deal with what they had before them”.
“These are painstakingly long investigations. It’s taken us this long to have the evidence to actually know the Iranians directed these attacks,” Mr Burgess said.
The AFP and NSW police conducted a number of high-profile raids last October, arresting 14 alleged offenders in relation to several anti-Semitic crimes.
In January, AFP Commissioner Reece Kershaw said police were investigating “whether overseas actors or individuals have paid local criminals in Australia to carry out some of these crimes in our suburbs”.
“We are looking at if – or how – they have been paid; for example, in cryptocurrency, which can take longer to identify,” he said.
In February, a former Israeli ambassador to the US said it was not “unusual” for groups to “harass and terrorise” local Jewish communities from overseas.
“Over a decade ago, I was the target of an Iranian assassination attempt that was mounted not by agents, but by the gangs of Mexican cartels,” he said.
“This is a known MO of the Iranians.”
As part of an investigation into the attacks, a former bikie boss, Sayed Mohammed Moosawi, was alleged to have been a key player in both incidents.
Known by associates as “James Bond”, Mr Moosawi, 32, a former Nomads bikie gang chapter president, was charged in March with orchestrating the crimes.
At a hearing in Sydney’s Downing Centre Local Court this month, Mr Moosawi was accused of directing two men to set fire to the venues.
He pleaded not guilty to three charges, including knowingly directing the activities of a criminal group and being an accessory before the fact to destroying property.
Asked on Tuesday whether ASIO believed Australian organised crime gangs had been enlisted by Iran to carry out the attacks, Mr Burgess said that was the case.
